4K vs 1440p vs 1080p: What Monitor to Buy?

[Nobina]

This is how it works. You upgrade from 1080p to 1440p, you see a slight improvement in visual clarity, maybe a couple of weeks pass, you look back at a 1080p monitor and you're disgusted and wonder how could you ever use it before and can't go back.

 

[Farkinell]

Recently went from a 1080p to 4K at 27” and as many others have pointed out the difference is night and day, even at this size. I use my PC for work and gaming and cannot imagine going back to a screen where I can see visible pixels. It makes a *huge* difference to the overall image quality, even just navigating windows.

Those saying 1080 is perfectly fine when they can afford to update to at least 1440 need to get their eyes seen to!

 

[Mr Majestyk]

Why are there no 16:10 desktop monitors yet and why is it 1440p then 2160p, we need a 1800p.

3200 x 1800 would have been a nice jump from 1440p and many more games would run well at this res.

I know with DLSS, FSR and XeSS it doesn't matter as much now, but there was a long period where 4K was a slide show even for high end cards.

 

[Faelan]

This is how it works. You upgrade from 1080p to 1440p, you see a slight improvement in visual clarity, maybe a couple of weeks pass, you look back at a 1080p monitor and you're disgusted and wonder how could you ever use it before and can't go back.

So true.

*cries in 49” 32:9 super ultrawide*

Worst purchase ever lol. I’ll forever be a slave to high end GPUs as a result. Oh well. I can think of a billion worse things to be a slave to. 1st world problems and all that.

 

[Kosmoz]

This is how I keep myself in check and not fall victim to their strategy of getting me on the 4k dangling carrot train: I don't buy a 4k screen to get used to it and then to never be able to go back to 1080p. I don't put myself in that position. You don't miss what you never had.

I actually deliberately bough the best 1080p TV I could (still) find instead of a 4k one, which would have been more expensive too, but precisely because I did not want to fall in the 4k trap and then besides a more expensive TV, I would have needed a more expensive 4k monitor and then the most expensive GPU, which ironically does not do proper 4k maxed out graphics today, let alone next year.

So yes, 1080p is really enough for me because I have discipline and patience to wait for better price/performance GPUs. I'm not gonna pay more than $600-700$ for one, preferably $500.

As for 1440p it's the same as 4k, only it makes even less sense than 4k for such a little improvement in image quality, but you still lose a lot of performance with today's GPUs and you still have to lower settings.

I'm sure with Lovelace and RDNA3 this discussion will change, but with today's GPUs no, I'm not interested at all.

 

[mbk34]

I'm not paying silly money for a new GPU so there's no point upgrading any other part of my system. My current monitors are 1080p but that's fine as my aging eyes are 720p.

 

[Rsndetre]

Got a 1440p monitor, for a while now, and the loss of frame rates is significant in some games.
I usually like to play with frame rates capped at max refresh rate. For me Freesync never works as advertised or I'm too sensitive. I can always tell when fps drops so I have to lower the quality in settings to achieve smooth gameplay. Right now I'm considering switching back to 1080p since a new card is out of discussion.

Second, I'm at the age where vision starts degrading. Bigger pixels are better for me.

 

[Ohnooze]

I have been using 1440p for around 8 years or so I think. Again I think the step up is pretty significant so long as you have a decent display. To me it's worth the performance hit because I usually upgrade my GPU every couple years anyway. I enjoy upgrading my PC somewhat regularly and 60fps is my happy place so it's not an issue for me.

 

[Salty Maud]

Was a early adopter of 1440p (Dell U2711) because 10bpc IPS panel and higher res made perfect sense for editing photos back then. Later on I got a 3440x1440@100Hz ultrawide for gaming, I loved the thing, it's great for desktop use and any game that properly supports 21:9. Now? I'm back at 1080p for two (and a half) reasons:

1. Not all games support 21:9
2. 240Hz

2.1. 1080p is easier to actually run at 240 fps.​

21:9 is still my overall favourite experience, but game support isn't guaranteed, it's pretty hard to run and I'd still go for 240Hz minimum for anything competitive. Pixel density of 1440p is definitely something I miss on a same size 1080p monitor, especially on desktop or when viewing content, but, again, 240Hz is something I'm not willing to compromise. 1080p looks okay enough with strong enough AA as long as things keep moving and you're not looking at a still scene. I've been oogling at the 1440p240Hz Samsung G7, but realistically I'd probably need to turn resolution scale down to get 240, and in that case I'd rather play on native 1080p. 4k240Hz would be great as it would provide both the option for high res and easy 240 at pixel perfect downscaling to 1080p in the same package. It's always a compromise, you can't get everything.

 

[CybaGirl]

What I would like to know is if there are any diabetics commenting in this post?

The reason being unfortunately I am a diabetic and I have often thought about upgrading to 1440. But what concerns me is. Will I be able to see the screen clearly and without any blur? As when my sugars are high, my eyes see things in a blurry state and I frequently find myself squinting to see things more clearly.

I would love to see a 1440 monitor in real life. But with COVID and everything, finding one on display these days is near impossible.

But at the same time. I am very happy with my HP 27X, 144Hz, 1ms, Freesync II, 1080p gaming monitor. But at the same time, I am curious as to what 1440 would look like, and I would actually see a difference?

So any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[dirtyferret]

What I would like to know is if there are any diabetics commenting in this post?

The reason being unfortunately I am a diabetic and I have often thought about upgrading to 1440. But what concerns me is. Will I be able to see the screen clearly and without any blur? As when my sugars are high, my eyes see things in a blurry state and I frequently find myself squinting to see things more clearly.

I would love to see a 1440 monitor in real life. But with COVID and everything, finding one on display these days is near impossible.

But at the same time. I am very happy with my HP 27X, 144Hz, 1ms, Freesync II, 1080p gaming monitor. But at the same time, I am curious as to what 1440 would look like, and I would actually see a difference?

So any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

I'm not a diabetic so I can't really comment on that aspect but I do have a dual monitor set up
27" DELL 1080p IPS 75hz Free-sync
27" LG 1440p IPS 144hz G-Sync/Free-sync

Both monitors were very well reviewed when they came out, the Dell is around six years old and LG just two years old.

The 1440p monitor definitely looks crisper for text and pictures when the same image is side by side. It's also great for spreadsheets that have lots of columns or placing two spreadsheets side by side if you only use one monitor. That said at default text size, the 1080p has larger text making it easier to read and web pages fill up the screen better on that monitor so I use it mostly for work. For gaming (I play mostly RPGs, strategy, and single player FPS games) I don't honestly see a major difference between the two. The 1440p is better but not a day vs night difference and as I said before the DELL 1080p is a very good monitor. If I was coming from a 24" 1080p TN panel monitor, I would probably have a different opinion.

Since you already have a 27" monitor that you are "very happy with" than I would save my money as I doubt you are missing anything you would clearly notice without having to run each monitor side by side and looking for small details.

 

[ddferrari]

Bought my Dell Alienware 34" curved 3440x1440/120Hz/IPS/G-Sync monitor in late 2017 and I still love it. It has been flawless and still not a single dead pixel. Ticks all the right boxes for me. Not considering an upgrade anytime soon. It's easily the most noticeable upgrade I've ever made to my rig.

These "sheeple" comments are ridiculous. No one is holding a gun to your head to buy anything, and perhaps some of us make enough money that splurging on higher end equipment isn't foolish at all if it's a tiny percentage of your income. Maybe $1000 to you is like $100 to someone else.

PS: I forgot to mention that if nVidia really cared about gamers they would allow pre-orders - limited to one per customer - at regular retail price with email verification.

 

[Gezzer]

Depending on screen size, the leap from 1080p to 1440p isn't so much that I'll refuse to use 1080p.

I have a low end system with a 24" 1080p IPS monitor. A higher end system with a 27" 1440p IPS, and my main system with 3 24" 1920x1200 IPS in Nvidia surround (6060x1200 bezel corrected). All were purchased before higher refresh rates were such a must have feature and run at 60hz. But then again my preferred games are less FPS, more RPG and strategy so the lower refresh isn't as much a drawback for me.

So far the only one that I'm feeling any need to replace is the surround monitors. Put truth is it's more because they're over 12 years old at this point, with 3 monitor surround not getting the developer support it use to have. I might get a ultra wide screen to replace them... eventually. But every time I sit down to play, I just don't feel like I'm being short changed, so who know's when I'll actually do it.